Five Years in Reflection with Stephen Wright

This week calls for celebration at Nimble., as our Design Director, Stephen Wright, celebrates his five year workiversary with our studio! Joining Nimble. in its first quarter of business, Stephen has grown from designer to director, finessing his knowledge of CRE and branding for place daily. Below he shares reflections from his first five years.

Learn more in this 5 minute read.

What was it like joining Nimble. in its first year of business?

SW: It was really exciting. I’ve always wanted to witness first-hand what it was like to run and operate your own business. For Nimble., Candice was leading the charge and spearheading growth. We actually met in Nimble.’s first workspace home (a Downtown Roswell co-working space) for our preliminary conversation. It was so inspiring to connect with a hyper-local up-start doing great work and to have the opportunity to come in on the front end of the journey. There was a little apprehension at first, I thought to myself “OK so if I leave my current job then this is a legitimate move, right?” But the pros completely outweighed the perceived risk, so I shot for it.

––And five years later, it’s been the best decision.

WeWork Studio Days

How has the studio changed in the last five years?

SW: It was awesome to see Nimble. start in an open co-working space. Growing from myself and Candice to a full-time crew of six (and counting) has been a big transformation. When we moved from our original studio, Roswell Collective, to WeWork, we had grown to four people and we all shared a fishbowl office space no bigger than the size of closet (kind of joking). Beyond team growth, we’ve honed our processes to enable our team to scale and focus on bigger picture projects and initiatives enabling smart growth. Looking back at year one and seeing how far we’ve come is really rewarding. We’re now able to take on diverse projects in greater quantities, while consistently upholding the level of quality and detail that our studio has always been respected for. Hiring a project manager, additional designers and a content strategist has been a game changer. And through our growth and hurdles, it’s exciting to remain a studio who still does 100% of its creative ––– brand, graphics, interiors, signage, web –––– in-house.

Pantone swatchbook, notebooks, pens, and camera on tabletop

Two coworkers collaborating with post-it notes on wall

Nimble. team and Landon standing with Popsicles in kitchen

Overhead shot of two coworkers looking at notes

How has your role evolved/changed over the last 5 years?

SW: Beginning as a Graphic Designer in 2015, to evolving to Senior Brand Designer in 2016, to my current role as Design Director — in short, it’s been an awesome ride! More than anything, over the course of time and understanding what our clients growing list of needs are, I think I’ve gained a sense of being able to understand, through their lens, how Nimble.’s services add value to their projects and bottom line. Being able to work on a wide range of projects from convo through fruition, I’m now able to speak more clearly on design’s ability to support business objectives, how brands can extend into the built environment, and how we consider this potential before we even approach design. Education in bite size pieces goes a long way.

*Design research in our current studio home*

What is your vision for the design team over the next five years?

SW: To empower the team daily to seek opportunities that fuel discovery and growth. I believe that enabling the team to have that hunger and desire to learn leads to continued personal and, in turn, studio growth. I look forward to exploration and challenge guiding possibility for our growing team over the next five years.

Two coworkers gathered around whiteboard

Most memorable growing pain? / Most memorable failure?

SW: I think my most memorable growing pain might’ve been a literal one — bumping elbows with three colleagues in a 250 SF WeWork space daily was humbling. In all seriousness, it was during our time at WeWork that we learned first-hand the pros and considerations of working in that kind of environment and this knowledge base has fueled years of interiors consulting to follow. The focus on amenity spaces and dedicated third place, conveniences and automation, were each successes that resulted in a higher level of user care. Ultimately, co-working wasn’t Nimble.’s final workplace destination but an integral part to our story and fuel for us to remember to focus every designed environment on its end-users.

As for my most memorable failure, I’ll tell you redemption story. Back when we consulted on our first large signage project (prior to onboarding Lauren), we experienced the risk you run by handing off a buttoned up conceptual design package to an outside production vendor without clarity in our served role from production through install (in short, to review every step of the production process from drawings to permit set to mockups before fabrication, and lead punch following install). For this project in particular, this concept package was taken and fabricated with no formalized production drawing review or subsequent proofing process, no vendor coordination at all –– which as you would imagine –– resulted in plentiful oversights. While we worked extremely quickly to correct production issues after being brought up to speed of the errors that resulted on the third-party side, I learned through this process that even the smallest missed details during conceptual design phase can be detrimental to final result. The biggest lesson learned –– review everything three times, have your team review it, and engage a Lauren to ensure consistent oversight from phase to phase.

I would also add — in general over the last 5 years, I’ve learned that if you’re going to fail, do it quickly and bounce back even faster.